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The final event in Historic Lexington Foundation’s Preservation Month activities will be a lecture and tour of “The Foundation” near Washington and Lee University’s Liberty Hall ruins this Saturday.
Professor Don Gaylord, research archeologist and instructor of anthropology at W&L, will speak to the history and restoration of this historic site at 10 a.m. at the Village Outdoor Pavilion which is adjacent to the university’s natatorium.
Following Gaylord’s talk, there will be a guided walk around the site of the 1700s steward’s house, now called The Foundation. This area will eventually have many purposes including use as an open-air classroom.
The Foundation is the surviving portion of what was once the steward’s residence, a kitchen and dining hall serving the Liberty Hall students. Archives show that the kitchen prepared bread and coffee for breakfast and meat stew for dinner.
After 1803, the land was sold and became a plantation. Based on archeological evidence, the steward’s house became a blacksmith shop and forge. An enslaved blacksmith named John Anderson taught children to read and write on the plantation and likely ran a schoolhouse out of the forge. It was also the likely site of washerwoman and seamstress work, not just a forge.
Last fall restoration work on the steward’s house began by the team of John and Jesse Friedrichs of Lexington’s New Dimension Masonry, who used 18th century construction techniques in the restoration.
Those attending Saturday’s event should take East Denny Circle off of U.S. 60 West to the Sydney Lewis Law School. Parking is available in the Lewis Parking Lot. Comfortable walking shoes are recommended. There will be seating for the talk.
